WATCH LIVE: City Council discusses the soda tax.
Your sugary beverage could soon cost you more.
Philadelphia City Council has the votes to pass some sort of "soda tax," a council source told NBC10 late Tuesday.
Council could vote on a sugary-beverage proposal as early as Wednesday afternoon when they convene for budget hearings. Vocal protesters were in chambers as Council discussed the tax on Wednesday and loudly voiced their opposition.
It still isn’t clear if the plan with enough city council members behind it is the same as Mayor Jim Kenney’s 3-cents-per-ounce proposal that Kenney told city council would provide $400 million to be split among several initiatives including universal Pre-K, rec centers, libraries and community schools.
Last month, Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown unveiled an alternative plan to tax 15 cents on all beverages over 7 ounces with the exception of baby formula, milk and alcohol. The so-called "container tax" would put a lesser tax burden on consumers compared to the 3-cents-per-ounce sugary beverage tax. Reynolds Brown claims her plan could yield up to $64 million.
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The beverage tax measure needs nine of the 17 council members to approve it.
The soda tax is part of Kenney's proposed $4.17-billion spending plan, which exceeds last year's budget by $100 million. Ads for and against the tax have flooded the airwaves in the past weeks.
As council mulls a tax, two separate anti-soda tax protests took place outside City Hall Wednesday morning.
